Montreal man convicted of child luring returned to halfway house

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A man who threatened several teenage girls through social media while he tried to extort nude images from them has been ordered by the Parole Board of Canada to return to a halfway house because authorities suspect he paid a woman to produce pornography online and because of a cryptic notebook uncovered while he was supposed to follow conditions imposed on him as a long-term offender.

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Philippe Truchon, now 44, was sentenced Nov. 21, 2018, at the Montreal courthouse to a 52-month prison term for having threatened five girls between the ages of 14 and 17. He had contacted through social media like Facebook. He introduced himself by offering them jobs as models or bartenders in bars that he claimed to own and then requested nude photos.

He met with one of the girls and ordered her to expose herself to him.

When he was sentenced, he had a little more than two years left to serve, but he was also declared a long-term offender and a judge decided the parole board could order Truchon to follow surveillance conditions for seven years after he completed his prison term.

He received the long-term offender designation because of his lengthy criminal record, which includes a case in 2011 when a sexologist described Truchon as “ticking time bomb” after he pleaded guilty to four counts of online child luring. In that case, the police had evidence Truchon approached 285 teenage girls through social networks.

Truchon was released from a federal penitentiary near the end of 2020 and the parole board decided to keep a tight leash on him.

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He was required to reside at a halfway house until April 2023. According to a decision made by the parole board last week, alarm bells went off one year later when his case management team learned that he visited the home of a man twice, in April and May this year, that was equipped with many computers with access to the internet. Truchon had previously been told he could not visit the man’s home because it is near places where children are likely to be.

His case management team learned that a woman was present during the first visit and that Truchon went to a nearby pharmacy to withdraw more than $900 from an ATM. His case management team suspects Truchon withdrew the money to pay the woman to make online pornography, but they were unable to prove it. The case management team noted that in 2010, Truchon pleaded guilty to six pimp-related charges.

His room at a community home run by a chaplain was searched and his case management team found the notebook. According to the decision made last week, it contained “the names of search engines aimed at preserving the privacy of its users, but also of the addresses of websites that broadcast pornographic content simultaneously. The case management team also found the words ‘dark web’ and ‘hacker’ (in the notebook). Strategies for preserving anonymity on the internet, advice for becoming a hacker and instructions on the computer hardware to use were also found in this notebook.”

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When Truchon was questioned about the notebook and the large withdrawal on June 13, he remained silent. The notebook was turned over to police to be analyzed.

“The  case management team believes that you are back in your crime cycle. According to it, the circumstances surrounding the suspension, or your presence in a home where there are several devices providing access to the internet, the presence of a woman unknown to the case management team, your withdrawals of large sums of money, the contents of the notebook in your room as well as your lies are very concerning,” the parole board wrote.

Without clear evidence that Truchon paid the woman to produce online pornography, his case management team could not recommend that Truchon be charged with violating his long-term offender conditions, but they did recommend that Truchon return to residing at a halfway house and that he be required to return to it seven days a week after he finishes work.

The parole board agreed that Truchon should be returned to a halfway house for the next six months. His status as a long-term offender will end in December 2027.

pcherry@postmedia.com

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